Open in South Africahttp://www.openthemagazine.com/taxonomy/term/25973/feed
enA Way Awayhttp://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/a-way-away
<p>To commence the 264th ball of the day, all of which had gone wicketless thus far, Ishant Sharma swayed his hair back at the top of his run-up and charged in towards the batsman, Hashim Amla. For exactly three hours and 59 minutes, Amla had focussed on every ball releasing from the hands of the Indian bowlers and for three hours and 59 minutes, he had more than just survived. Amla, along with a human version of the word stoic in Dean Elgar, had taken the momentum -- and all but taken the match too -- away from the weary Indians. And now, as the clock marked the completion of four hours of Amla’s special innings, Sharma pitched the ball short of a length and outside Amla’s off stump, which he swished at.</p>
<p>The ball caught a nick of Amla’s bat and screeched towards first slip, Cheteshwar Pujara. Had Pujara been standing a foot ahead, the ball would’ve nestled into his cupped palms. But as it happened, the ball fell tantalisingly in front of him and captain Virat Kohli, stationed at mid-on, slapped his cap against his thigh in disgust. For a majority of the first two sessions on Saturday, such was India’s day.</p>
<p>After being in complete control of the Johannesburg Test until the previous evening, where play was halted due to safety concerns for the batsmen, Kohli’s fast bowlers toiled all day on Day Four on the same pitch and received no purchase. So much so that Amla and Elgar, not the quickest scorers of runs in the world, had brought South Africa to within 117 runs of victory, with all nine wickets that they had begun this day with intact.</p>
<p>Sharma, running on fumes now, began the 265th ball of this wicketless day. At this point, a few minutes before the tea break on Day Four and with South Africa’s score on 124/1, some Indian families had even begun streaming out of the stadium's turnstiles and on to Corlett Drive. Sharma’s delivery pitched on middle and drifted towards Amla’s pads, and the batsman flicked it towards midwicket, a shot that has earned him his bread, butter and a mansion in Durban. Yet, incredibly, the shot squirted up and towards to the man positioned quite recently in this very path. And Hardik Pandya simply doesn’t drop catches. So Amla exited the scene, out for a crafty 52.</p>
<p>Through the literal and proverbial cloud of gloom that had hung over the Wanderers all day long, a faintest ray of light shone on the Indian team. Still, the task of them completing a turnaround seemed a stretch too far for all those still seated beyond the boundary rope – the public and the press. Kohli, however, didn't stop believing and as he revealed during the press conference later, he and his team-mates don’t give a hoot about what anybody outside their dressing room thinks. And his team-mates, in this case, especially his bowlers, believed they could still win.</p>
<p>“I don’t think like people on the outside,” Kohli said. “For me it is very important to have belief in the team and all the time I was thinking if we were in this position and we lose a wicket it suddenly makes things very difficult for the people coming in to bat.” He was right, of course, and not just because he was speaking with the help of hindsight. This is what Kohli and his bowlers truly believed, even as AB de Villiers walked in to bat -- just the right man for SA in this situation; a man who could quite easily take the attack to India and knock off the remaining runs in a jiffy.</p>
<p>De Villiers, though, was out even before he could get his eyes in. Those pupils surely weren’t wide enough when Jaspirt Bumrah bowled him a back of a length ball for AB poked at it and a thick edge was latched by Ajinkya Rahane at gully. This was how the game broke for tea, with India 7 wickets away from one of their greatest overseas wins and South Africa 105 runs from ensuring that India's trend of getting beaten where it matters most continues. And Faf du Plessis, South Africa’s captain and a man who has made batting big in the fourth innings of a Test match his signature, was still around. As was Elgar, an object as unmovable as the wrought iron awnings of Wanderers.</p>
<p>Elgar would remain unmoved. But just about everyone else, the Indians shook off with ease. “(Once) they lost a couple of wickets the guys coming in were always going to be nervous because this is Johannesburg; we are not playing in India,” Kohli explained later. “And we had nothing to lose. We were playing expressive cricket and we got stuck into them.” They did, especially Mohammed Shami. Not long after play resumed post-tea, thanks to one of the best bowling spells by an Indian in overseas conditions, South Africa lost all their remaining wickets, 7, in the space of 17 overs – with Shami detonating the stumps at will and claiming four of those scalps.</p>
<p>But the wicket that really swung the tide in India’s favour, that of du Plessis's, wasn’t taken by Shami. The pitch, mostly, and Sharma, somewhat, have to be credited for that. The last time these two sides met at the Wanderers in 2013, du Plessis had nearly summoned a miracle in the fourth innings by scoring a century when his side were set an impossible 458 runs to win the game. Du Plessis had scored 134 and SA came within 7 runs of a world record. On Saturday, it wasn't to be yet again, by a significantly larger margin.</p>
<p>On a pitch du Plessis never wished to play another moment on yesterday due to its excessive bounce ended up doing him in today by keeping low. Very low. Sharma hit the dreaded crack and the ball darted into du Plessis at ankle-length, crashing into the base of his off stump. The SA captain went down on his haunches and South Africa stayed there, minus the legs to get back up on their feet again.</p>
<p><em>Brief scores: Johannesburg, Day 4 -- South Africa 194 & 177 all out in 73.3 overs (D Elgar unbeaten 86, H Amla 52; M Shami 5/28, I Sharma 2/31) lost to India 187 & 247 by 63 runs</em></p>
<p><strong>Also Read</strong><br /><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/cricket/cricket-all-is-lost" target="_blank">All is Lost</a><br /><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/cricket/unnatural-selection" target="_blank">Unnatural Selection</a><br /><strong><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/" target="_blank"><em>Open</em> in South Africa</a> for match reports</strong></p>
<img src="http://www.openthemagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/public%3A/Cricket5.jpg?itok=WRTcj4wy" /><div>BY: Aditya Iyer</div><div>Node Id: 23899</div>Sun, 28 Jan 2018 00:12:10 +0000vijayopen23899 at http://www.openthemagazine.comFear and Loathing in Johannesburghttp://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/fear-and-loathing-in-johannesburg
<p>To begin the 35<sup>th</sup> over of India’s target-setting innings, Kagiso Rabada made a U-turn at the top of his mark and glided in to bowl from the Golf Course End. Rabada’s right wrist released the ball on good length, close to the batsman Murali Vijay’s stride. But when the ball reached Vijay, it was in the form of a bouncer. Lifting up almost vertically after hitting a crack, the ball crunched into Vijay’s gloves and the batsman quickly dropped his bat and doubled over, one palm pressed into the other in pain. As Vijay received medical attention from the Indian team physio, the umpires, Aleem Dar and Ian Gould, congregated over the wicket and squinted their eyes over the misbehaving spot.</p>
<p>This wasn’t the first occasion on which the pitch played catalyst to a Vijay body blow. Just 11 overs earlier, Morne Morkel had floated the ball on good length as well and the leather spat up nastily and crushed Vijay in the box. The umpires had taken a fleeting look at the developing crack then, just as they had when Hashim Amla took a few hits to ribs on Day Two. But after Vijay’s latest smack to the hand in the 35<sup>th</sup> over, a small crack, barely visible under a layer of grass, spouted from within it a storm that would, by the end of the day, bring this Test match to its knees – threatening to end both the ongoing game, and the series, abruptly.</p>
<p>But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. As Vijay received treatment, the umpires decided to have a word with the other batsman, Virat Kohli, captain of the Indian team. Regarding dangerous pitches the law of the game accords, “If the on-field umpires decide that it is dangerous or unreasonable for play to continue on the match pitch, they shall stop play and immediately advise the ICC Match Referee.” The following two corollaries state: “The on-field umpires and the ICC Match Referee shall then consult with both captains” and “If the captains agree to continue, play shall resume.”</p>
<p>Had the match been called off by the decision-makers with India on 84/3 (a slender lead of 77 with nearly half the Test, wicket-wise, still to play), hardly anyone would’ve raised an eyebrow. But the match referee, Andy Pycroft in this case, wasn’t consulted by the umpires; only Kohli was. And to give his leadership credit where it's due, Kohli insisted on getting on with the game. So it did. And during lunch, for <em>Supersport TV</em>, former captains, India’s Sunil Gavaskar and South Africa’s Kepler Wessels, spent their lunch analysing the demon in the pitch.</p>
<p>Gavaskar: “The crack is just 6 metres from the base of the stump so this is an awkward place because it is so close to the batsman that he has to play at it and has every chance of getting hit. Because of the variable bounce once it hits the crack, it can either stay low and rise up sharply. There’s no certainty and that makes the pitch almost impossible to play on.”</p>
<p>Wessels: “It’s very dangerous for the batsman. He should only be worrying about facing the skill-set of the bowler and not worry about getting hurt by the pitch.”</p>
<p>In such conditions that were rapidly worsening with the passage of time, India dug deep and ploughed on in the second session of the day, even as stray whispers of abandoning the match grew louder. It wasn’t and Kohli tamed the crack, pitch and SA’s bowlers and scored 41. Ajinkya Rahane did all that and more, he even fought for his pride, and top scored with 48. And most incredible of all, India’s lower order, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami in particular, managed to score 33 and 27 respectively, while facing the wrath of the best seam attack in the world on a ridiculously skewed wicket.</p>
<p>The umpires didn’t stop play when the South African bowlers came around the wicket with the singular intention of peppering India's tailenders with short-pitched stuff to their faces. They did halt the game, however, when a South African opener couldn’t deal with a delivery that had nothing to do with the crack in the first place.</p>
<p>But once again, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. On a wicket deemed unsuitable and unhealthy for batting, India scored 247 runs in their second innings – an effort that is put into perspective when you realise that neither team had breached the 200-run mark in starkly better batting conditions during their respective first innings. It was, hence, always going to take a miracle of sorts for the South African batsmen to conquer the target of 241 runs and push for a win. Instead, Deal Elgar, South Africa’s opener otherwise known for his grit, chose to push for an exit through the backdoor. It didn’t go down well with anyone watching -- the press (inclusive of the local media), the players, the pundits and the public.</p>
<p>In the ninth over of South Africa’s innings, in what would eventually be the final over of the day (and also threaten to be the final over of the Test), Jasprit Bumrah – India’s bowling hero from the first innings – was introduced into the attack. The first ball he bowled rose off a length and hit Elgar on the shoulder. This sudden rise could well have been due to the crack, but the next time Elgar was hit, off the third ball, it sure as hell wasn’t.</p>
<p>Running in from the Golf Course End, Bumrah bent his back and bowled a regulation bouncer, well short of length and well behind the good length area which contained the crack. And the ball, as it should have, rose and climbed towards the batsman’s face. When Elgar’s helmet was hit, it was due to nothing else but the bounce on offer coupled with the batsman’s misjudgment. Yet, for this commonplace occurrence in Test cricket, the game was punished.</p>
<p>The umpires met and together they conspired with match referee Pycroft, who had by now made his way to the field. Disregarding common sense and <em>vox populi</em>, the three of them hauled the players off the field. Elgar was the first to disappear and then the umpires, even as eleven, protesting Indians stayed behind as forgotten residues on a desolate cricket field.</p>
<p><em>Note: After lengthy discussions with both captains and team managements in the match referee’s room that carried on past sun down, the officials have decided that play will resume on Day Four. </em></p>
<p><strong>Also Read</strong><br /><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/cricket/cricket-all-is-lost" target="_blank">All is Lost</a><br /><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/cricket/unnatural-selection" target="_blank">Unnatural Selection</a><br /><strong><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/" target="_blank"><em>Open</em> in South Africa</a> for match reports</strong></p>
<img src="http://www.openthemagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/public%3A/Cricket27.jpg?itok=FFgSuHFg" /><div>BY: Aditya Iyer</div><div>Node Id: 23898</div>Fri, 26 Jan 2018 22:02:14 +0000vijayopen23898 at http://www.openthemagazine.comQuick Retributionhttp://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/quick-retribution
<p>At lunch on the second day of this Johannesburg Test, AB de Villiers had faced all of two balls. The last two balls before the break. Both these balls, bowled by Hardik Pandya, were meticulously blocked by the new batsman. De Villiers, perhaps, wasn’t even expecting to make his way to the middle in this first session given how well South Africa’s nightwatchman, Kagiso Rabada, had been batting. </p>
<p>At times Rabada had looked even more fluent than his more astute batting partner, Hashim Amla, especially when he flicked Jasprit Bumrah off his hips for a couple of boundaries. But Rabada was dismissed for 30 (30 more runs than the Indians had intended) just before the steak break and the hosts’ were 81 for three – only 106 runs behind India’s first innings total, with the most consistent batsman of this series, de Villiers that is, yet to have his say.</p>
<p>In the two completed Test matches of this tour, de Villiers had scored exactly 100 runs in each game. In Cape Town, he had contributed 65 and 35 runs in the two innings (when no other player in either team crossed two figures) and in Centurion, 20 and 80 respectively. The post-lunch session, then, began with the hope of another AB special, one that would in all likelihood take the game away from the Indians. And when he got on strike, off the fourth ball of Ishant Sharma’s session-opening over, the crowd at the Wanderers drummed up their support for their man as the fast bowler ran in. </p>
<p>The ball pitched on de Villiers' off stump and his bat followed the line. Only, Sharma’s good length delivery swung late, missed the bat and crashed into AB’s pads in front of off and middle. The entire Indian team went up in appeal but umpire Aleem Dar was convinced that he wasn’t out. Irritated, Virat Kohli gathered his think tank – ‘keeper Parthiv Patel, first slip Cheteshwar Pujara and the bowler, Ishant – in a huddle and hastily discussed whether to review the decision. Twice in the morning session Kohli had turned to DRS for help and twice he had been snubbed. So, this time around, he was understandably a little more circumspect about seeking intervention. </p>
<p>Kohli decided to not review Dar and within seconds, the cameras caught coach Ravi Shastri gasping in the dressing room, with his index finger raised. De Villiers would’ve been out. For zero. Yet here he was, out but not out.</p>
<p>Few Indian teams in the past would’ve recovered from such a mental blow – a let off to the best batsman from the opposition while also, lest we forget, defending a minuscule lead. But this is no ordinary Indian team; the word ordinary, after all, cannot possibly apply to an Indian side playing five fast bowlers and no spinner. So the pacers toiled on, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar starting his over a few minutes later by bowling a couple of inswingers to Amla. De Villiers had of course noticed this trend when he got on strike and perhaps even knew in his bones that Kumar was going to shape one into him. Yet, when it happened, he had no answer.</p>
<p>The Bhuvneshwar ball began well outside his off stump, only for it swing in viciously, tear through de Villiers’ poke and topple his middle stump. And SA were now 92/4. To dismiss AB for cheap (5 runs), especially after having given him a second life, made all the difference. For a young fast bowler like Bumrah, who had only seen despair in his short Test career that had spanned out fully on this tour, it was an injection of hope.</p>
<p>With more belief than blood running through his veins, Bumrah used the oldest sleight-of-hand in the book to get rid of South Africa's captain, Faf du Plessis. He banged the ball in short and wide of du Plessis’ off stump – so wide that one of them was even called one – three times in a row, before bowling one full and cutting sharply towards the batsman. Du Plessis shouldered his arms and the ball smashed into his off stump. </p>
<p>Bumrah would be involved in each of the dismissals that fell thereafter, with the wickets of Quinton de Kock, Amla, Andile Phehlukwayo and Lungi Ngidi (to collect his maiden five-for), and a catch of Vernon Philander to boot. Amla and Philander, however, hung on a little longer at the crease than the rampaging Indians would’ve liked. </p>
<p>Playing a role similar to Cheteshwar Pujara’s on the first day, Amla persevered through the chaos, scoring at a pace that would never take the game away from India but would always keep South Africa in the picture. By the time he was out for 61, South Africa had reduced the deficit to 18, a deficit that was just about wiped away thanks to a heroic 35 from Philander.</p>
<p>Despite the game now being on equal terms (the hosts led by just 7 runs), a late tilt was expected in South Africa’s favour – what with India having to bat 75 minutes until stumps were drawn and the Indian openers never having had a partnership of more than 30 runs in this series. But instead of opening with their regular combination of KL Rahul and Murali Vijay, the Indian management sent out the latter with wicketkeeper Patel. Mostly to mess with the South African bowlers’ lines and lengths (a left-right batting combination does that) but also to try something different. It worked, sort of – for Patel was dismissed early but when Rahul walked in at number three, he survived. As did Vijay.</p>
<p>When play was called off at 5;30pm in Johannesburg, Vijay and Rahul had added 32 runs (India’s best ‘opening’ stand so far) and India were leading by 42 runs. On a wicket where neither completed innings had breached the 200-run team mark, those 42 runs felt more like 142 runs.</p>
<p><em>Brief scores: Johannesburg, Day 2 -- India 187 & 49 for one in 17 overs (KL Rahul 16 not out, P Patel 16; V Philander 1/11) lead South Africa 194 all out in 65.5 overs (H Amla 61, V Philander 35; J Bumrah 5/54, B Kumar 3/44) by 42 runs.</em></p>
<p><strong>Also Read</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/cricket/cricket-all-is-lost" target="_blank">All is Lost</a><br /><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/cricket/unnatural-selection" target="_blank">Unnatural Selection</a><br /><strong><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/" target="_blank"><em>Open</em> in South Africa</a> for match reports</strong></p>
<img src="http://www.openthemagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/public%3A/Jasprit-Bumrah_1.jpg?itok=Kq0J6wer" /><div>BY: Aditya Iyer</div><div>Node Id: 23894</div>Thu, 25 Jan 2018 19:33:55 +0000vijayopen23894 at http://www.openthemagazine.comHeavy Mettlehttp://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/heavy-mettle
<p>With just a few minutes to go for the lunch break, Lungi Ngidi – the tall and powerful fast bowler who had ripped the Indian batting order apart in his match-winning performance in Centurion – ran in to bowl at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. His delivery drifted down the leg side and the batsman, India’s number three Cheteshwar Pujara, got a deft touch on the ball and flicked it to fine-leg. Even as Pujara began his 22-yard journey to complete a run, the sparse but vocal crowd in the stadium rose to their feet, screaming and cheering the single all the way until the batsman had reached the non-striker’s end.</p>
<p>At the other end of the pitch, Virat Kohli too applauded the moment, even gesturing to his batting partner to raise his bat in celebration. Pujara, looking visibly embarrassed by now, simply smiled and hoisted his thumb to the dressing room, where everyone from his team-mates to the support staff were caught giggling. Perhaps never before in the history of Indian Test cricket has a proper top-order batsman received such attention for simply getting off the mark. But this was no ordinary single. It was Pujara’s first run in a long and arduous session; his only run in 54 balls. Such was Pujara’s morning. Such was India’s day.</p>
<p>Had Pujara not consumed as many balls and survived that spell of play on a most difficult pitch, India would’ve been bowled out for a whole lot lesser than 187; most certainly 50 runs shorter – Pujara’s contribution to the low scoring innings. But Pujara’s value was more than the runs he scored. His very presence in the middle – shaky in the first session and assured in the second – ensured that captain Kohli (the best Indian batsman in this series by quite a distance) had someone to stitch a partnership with.</p>
<p>In stark contrast to Pujara’s dogged approach, Kohli played a fluent but chancy innings of 54 – filled with strokes and dropped chances. Apart from Pujara and Kohli, only Bhuvneshwar Kumar – throwing his bat around at the end of the Indian innings – got to double digits. Without the three of them, India wouldn’t have come close to putting up a three-digit team score.</p>
<p>“On this wicket, even once you were in you were never really settled,” Pujara said to <em>SuperSport TV</em> at the end of Day One, putting in perspective just how difficult it was to bat, let alone bat 179 balls. “We were just surviving there. There was plenty of deviation and lateral movement of the ball on offer on this pitch, and I think it will only get tougher to bat on as the Test proceeds.”</p>
<p>This was also the reason, then, that the Indian team management chose to bat first on a green top, despite playing five fast bowlers in the eleven for the first time in this already-lost series. Ravichandran Ashwin, India’s off-spinner, made way for Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who joined Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya to form a rare, five-pronged Indian pace attack. Which is why it was also a tad bit surprising when Kohli won the toss and chose to bat first, exposing himself and his batsmen on a cold and windy morning to South Africa’s very own five-pronged quick attack of Kagiso Rabada, Vernon Philander, Morne Morkel, Ngidi and Andile Phehlukwayo. Few Indian captains in the past would’ve taken such a brave call, but it was a move brimming with Kohli’s favourite word – intent. Something the Indian openers showed very little of.</p>
<p>Before this third and final Test in Johannesburg began, India’s highest opening partnership was 30. Today they achieved their lowest of 7, with KL Rahul playing down the wrong line and eventually inside-edging Philander to the ‘keeper for nought. This was just the fourth over of the day and in walked Pujara. He was nearly dismissed early in his innings, as the South Africans reviewed the umpire’s not out call after Philander had trapped him on his knee-roll. Thanks to the excessive bounce on offer on this pitch right through the day, Hawkeye inferred that the ball was clipping the bails and Pujara survived. At the other end, though, Murali Vijay didn’t.</p>
<p>Playing well away from his body, Vijay poked at wide Rabada ball that he should’ve left alone and India were now looking down the barrel at 13/2. Here, Kohli joined Pujara and the two men who scored hundreds on this very Jo’burg track the last time India toured South Africa put up a semblance of a fight. It was an abnormal Kohli innings right from the get-go, what with the captain missing and edging more balls outside his off stump in the first hour of this innings than in the entire series put together. Sometimes he left balls alone on length and some other times he misread the bounce and was nearly dismissed. On one such occasion, while batting on 11, Kohli decided to hook Rabada and ended up spooning a leading edge to Philander at mid-off. Philander dived to reach it but only ended up falling <em>over</em> the ball.</p>
<p>At this point, Pujara had faced 50 balls and not scored a run. So Kohli decided to score for both of them. He drove Rabada through cover and cut Phehlukwayo past point in quick succession to pick up two boundaries. These, of course, were India’s only two fours in the first session.</p>
<p>Kohli was dropped soon after lunch when he edged Morkel to the second slip, AB de Villiers. Now de Villiers doesn’t drop too many and he didn’t when Kohli next gave him a chance in the same position. Ngidi, bowling a nagging line, forced Kohli to play at one outside off-stump and de Villiers recoiled during his incredible catch like he had taken a bullet to his chest. The huddled South Africans, however, knew that it was India that had been gunned down.</p>
<p>Pujara began playing some of his finest strokes in patches just before tea – square cutting Philander elegantly on one leg for boundaries twice in succession. Post tea, the runs came thick and fast, in Pujara’s world anyway, where he looked bent on scoring and not simply surviving. But just when it seemed like he had seen off the threat, an in-cutting ball from Phuhlekwayo kissed his outside edge and came to rest in Quinton de Kock’s gloves. A minute before Pujara's dismissal, India were 144/4. A few minutes after they were 144/7. From there on, a team score of 187 runs, on this pitch, against this attack, must only be considered a miracle.</p>
<p><em>Brief scores: Johannesburg, Day 1 -- India 187 all out in 77 overs (V Kohli 54, C Pujara 50; A Phuhlekwayo 2/21, V Philander 2/31) vs South Africa 6 for one in 6 overs (D Elgar 4 not out; B Kumar 1/3)</em></p>
<img src="http://www.openthemagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/public%3A/Cheteshwar.jpg?itok=MbvzoThn" /><div>BY: Aditya Iyer</div><div>Node Id: 23882</div>Wed, 24 Jan 2018 17:35:40 +0000vijayopen23882 at http://www.openthemagazine.comOf Debacles & Debutantshttp://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/of-debacles-debutants
<p>Cheteshwar Pujara is not on strike. Yet, somehow, he is now going to find a way to run himself out. And because he is Cheteshwar Pujara, also simultaneously end all hopes of India winning/drawing this Test match in Centurion. For Pujara and more so for India, such was this day; such was this Test.</p>
<p>In the first innings, India’s most reliable batsman in the toughest format of the game, Pujara, had committed a most out-of-character blunder. A suicide, if you may. Of the very first ball he faced, he had flicked the ball straight to the fielder at mid-on and set off on a run. Now, Pujara is rather used to spending hours at the crease <em>without</em> worrying about his score, if the situation demands it. Yet, here, on the second day of the Centurion Test, he faced all of one delivery and looked to manically, uncharacteristically get to the other end. He was run out, of course, and India ended up conceding a 28-run first innings lead that they perhaps wouldn’t have had he not attempted that run.</p>
<p>Today, <span>Wednesday, the fifth</span> day of the Centurion Test, the situation called for even more level-headedness. India, after all, were looking to save the match, a difficulty level that Pujara’s batting style was programmed to deal with. When he had walked in to bat at the end of Day Four, with the score on 11/1, running hard between the wickets to chase down the 287-run target could have been the order-of-the-hour. But by this morning, that hour, and many more, had passed. No one, apparently, had told Pujara that.</p>
<p>It is now the 27<sup>th</sup> of the innings and Parthiv Patel, better known as Rohit Sharma’s human-shield, is on strike. The score is 47/4 and this is the first ball of the new Philander over. Patel guides the ball wide of gully and to third man and the two batsmen set off for two runs. At the boundary rope, Lungi Ngidi throws in a dive and sweeps the ball back into play with his large hands. By this time, Pujara has completed the second run by reaching the non-striker’s end – a vantage point from where he, and not Patel, can see that the ball has been picked up by AB de Villiers, a man with a bullet arm anywhere on the field.</p>
<p>Pujara, if you must know, does not have bullet legs; far from it. Yet, he chooses to take on de Villiers’s throw to the ‘keeper and attempt a fatal third run. This, when runs had nearly ceased to matter to the Indian team. This, when he is perhaps the slowest runner between the wickets in the Indian team. Maybe even world cricket. Pujara is run out despite his dive. The South Africans are in rip roaring happiness. And why not? If getting Virat Kohli’s wicket the previous evening had ensured that India could not win this match, Pujara’s fall had all but ascertained that India would not be able to save it either.</p>
<p>Less than two hours after this moment, India had lost the match, bowled out for 151, and had conceded the three-match series by going 0-2 down. Pujara’s twin run outs may not have been the only reason for India’s sufferance at Centurion, but they sure were the turning points on the respective days that they occurred. “I can accept defeats, but such incidents (Pujara's run outs) that allowed the situation to get out of grasp is not acceptable,” Virat Kohli would later say in the press conference.</p>
<p>Pujara’s absence also hurt India because he was the only Indian batsman who seemed comfortable while facing Lungi Ngidi. On the fourth evening of this game as Ngidi, the tall and strong debutant in the South African ranks and all of 21 years old, terrorised the likes of Kohli and KL Rahul, Pujara had found a way to first survive and later see off the terrific quick. On the fifth day, he was dismissed before Ngidi even came on to bowl.</p>
<p>Post-Pujara and to get the wickets column ticking, Ngidi removed the dangerous Hardik Pandya from the equation with a snorter of a ball in just his second over of the morning. Thereon, the rest was easy work. Next over, Ravichandran Ashwin was nicked off to the ‘keeper first ball and Ngidi found himself on the verge of a five-for on debut, which he promptly collected with the dismissal of a wildly swinging Mohammed Shami. Ngidi pumped his chest and folded his hands, and soon – with figures of 6/39 -- folded up the Indian side.</p>
<p><em>Brief scores: Centurion, Day 5 – India 151 all out in 50.2 overs (R Sharma 47, M Shami 28, P Patel 19; L Ngidi 6/39, K Rabada 3/47) lost to South Africa 335 & 258 by 135 runs. </em></p>
<p><strong>Also Read</strong><br /><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/cricket/unnatural-selection" target="_blank">Unnatural Selection</a><br /><strong><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/" target="_blank"><em>Open</em> in South Africa</a> for match reports</strong></p>
<img src="http://www.openthemagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/public%3A/Lungi%20Ngidi%20for%20Web.jpg?itok=fzvTrH2X" /><div>BY: Aditya Iyer</div><div>Node Id: 23849</div>Wed, 17 Jan 2018 16:50:24 +0000vijayopen23849 at http://www.openthemagazine.com Low Blowhttp://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/low-blow
<p>Sometime <span>on Tuesday</span>, during the second session of play -- the least entertaining session of South Africa-India Test series so far where Faf du Plessis and Vernon Philander, the overnight batsmen, looked to dead bat the visitors out of the contest – Hardik Pandya ran in to bowl. By this juncture of the session, South Africa had extended their over all lead to 239 runs, with captain du Plessis batting on a 97-ball 24, and Vernon Philander on 26 runs off 81 balls. The spectators snored. The Indian fielders around the bat moved gingerly and the slip cordon had stopped chatting.</p>
<p>In such dull environs, Pandya glided in, from the River End, to complete the final ball of his seventh over. Nothing interesting, it goes without saying, had occurred during his first five balls. The final ball, however, pitched just outside du Plessis’s off stump, on good length, and kicked up a cloud of earth. Then, refusing to climb any higher than du Plessis’ ankles, the ball hissed under the South African captain’s cutting blade and rolled an inch past his off stump. Pandya flew into the air at the end of his follow through, palms on his head and screaming. And instantly, the spectators came back to life.</p>
<p>The Indian slip cordon was back to chirping as well. Heard over the stump mic, Virat Kohli said in Hindi: “The ball is staying low, bowl it there, bowl it there, Pandya!” Rohit Sharma, at gully, clapped his hands together and said, “<em>Sabaash</em>,” and then bent his back low and shadow-practiced imaginary deliveries that were, in his head at least, staying just as low.</p>
<p>Intermittently, for the rest of South Africa’s target-setting innings and true to a weary, abrasive Day Four pitch, some balls soared up from a length and the odd ball stayed low. But not low enough like that Pandya delivery for the remainder of South Africa’s innings, which had by its end collectively amassed a lead of 286 runs. To win this Test and square the series, then, India needed 287 to win.</p>
<p>Now, the Indians walked out to bat. And in the space of 54 incredible minutes, the low bounce would become a rule-of-thumb, causing enough havoc for Mohammed Shami (the pick of the Indian bowlers with four wickets on Tuesday) to slap his forehead with his hand to show his disgust during the press conference and say: “<em>Pata nahi kya sochke aisa </em>wicket<em> diya.</em>” <em>I cannot understand what they were thinking when they gave us such a wicket. </em>The Indians, during their chase, did not have much time to think about the pitch either, for that was the rapidity with which wickets fell during the chase, all but ending India’s hopes of a comeback in this series.</p>
<p>At stumps on Day Four, deflated Indian fans left the SuperSport Park in Centurion with the national flag tucked under their arms, disbelieving of just how swiftly India’s hopes had vanished in the space of eight overs. From 11 for no loss, India had fallen to 26 for three. And the dear departed were the openers, Murali Vijay and KL Rahul; and most crucially, captain Virat Kohli – who, in the first innings, had scored the only hundred of this match.</p>
<p>Two of these three wickets, Vijay’s and Kohli’s, were due to the ball staying lower than the batsman (and perhaps the bowler) had expected. On the last ball of the seventh over, Vijay, from the non-striker’s end, watched a Vernon Philander ball skid under Rahul’s defence and miss the bottom of his off stump by a coat of varnish. This awareness, however, did not come in handy when he was on strike the following over. Kagiso Rabada, with his skill, got the ball the cut in drastically towards Vijay and the pitch did the rest. The ball rushed on without bouncing, took the inside edge of Vijay’s willow and clattered on to the stumps. In him, India had lost the maker of 9 of their 11 runs.</p>
<p>Rahul was the next to go. During a four-over period of South African hostility where no runs were scored, the opener, then shackled on a 28-ball 4, tried to get things moving with a four. He cut an inward drifting ball bowled by the Test debutant, Lungi Ngidi. Ngidi’s line was too close to his body and Rahul only ended up spooning a simple catch to backward point. As he exited the field, he crossed paths with the incoming batsman, Kohli.</p>
<p>If India were to stand a chance of coming close to South Africa's target, Kohli had to replicate his first innings effort. But the Indian captain never looked fluent at the crease, even while he scored a much needed boundary for his team. The leg side ball bowled by Ngidi stayed awfully low, squaring up the batsman before taking a leading edge for four runs. The next time he faced Ngidi, Kohli wasn’t so lucky. To end the sixteenth over, Ngidi went wide of his crease and angled the ball into Kohli’s body, crashing into his pads lower than he had intended. Kohli reviewed the decision purely on his reputation, and even before the ball-tracker appeared on the large screen, he began making his way back to the pavilion, dragging with him the hopes of even the most optimistic Indian fan.</p>
<p><em>Brief scores: Centurion, Day Four – India 307 & 35 for three in 23 overs (C Pujara 11 not out, M Vijay 9; L Ngidi 2/14, K Rabada 1/9) versus South Africa 335 & 258 all out in 91.3 overs (AB de Villiers 80, D Elgar 61; M Shami 4/49, J Bumrah 3/70).</em></p>
<p><strong>Also Read</strong><br /><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/cricket/unnatural-selection" target="_blank">Unnatural Selection</a><br /><strong><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/" target="_blank"><em>Open</em> in South Africa</a> for match reports</strong></p>
<img src="http://www.openthemagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/public%3A/Virat.jpg?itok=rF9-jIzF" /><div>BY: Aditya Iyer</div><div>Node Id: 23848</div>Tue, 16 Jan 2018 21:33:49 +0000vijayopen23848 at http://www.openthemagazine.com21st Century Greatshttp://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/21st-century-greats
<p>The early end to the third day’s play in Centurion was ushered in in the most bizarre of circumstances. A solitary rain cloud, black as the night and pregnant with water, found its way to the SuperSport Park – accompanied by lightning and thunder -- and settled directly over the cricket pitch. All around the cloud, the city of Centurion was covered by the bluest skies. But over the ground, and specifically over the pitch, the scene was out of a doomsday movie. The cloud opened. The ground flooded. The day was soon called off, after the cloud had passed, under bright blue skies.</p>
<p>Just like the end, <span>Monday</span> had begun in equally bizarre circumstances. Exactly six overs after the overnight Indian batsmen, Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya, resumed their innings, the latter experienced a brain freeze for the ages. Pandya blocked a Kagiso Rabada delivery and the ball trickled to mid-on, where the burly Vernon Philander stood. Pandya, in his forward motion after completing the stroke, checked with Kohli if he would like to attempt a quick run. Kohli’s reply was a resounding ‘No’, so Pandya turned back to re-enter the batting crease, the few metres that he had moved ahead due to inertia. As he reached his safe zone, Philander’s throw hit the stumps and ricocheted away to a vacant region on the field, so the batting pair ended up sneaking a run eventually.</p>
<p>The umpire, however, just to be 100 per cent certain, decided to go upstairs and check if Pandya indeed had survived the Philander throw. 'Pffft, of course he had,' was the on field verdict.</p>
<p>The replay left everyone aghast. Pandya had indeed re-entered the batting crease, about a metre in, when the stump was felled. But both his feet were in the air. And, crucially, he hadn’t grounded his bat. When the big screen confirmed that he was out, there were more gasps than cheers in the stands. As Kohli threw his bat away in disbelief, Pandya walked away – slapping the base of his bat against his protected forehead with every step. This partnership, had there been one, was India’s golden chance to wipe off the overnight deficit of 153 runs. Instead, due to an unpardonable blooper, Pandya, the hero of the first Test, was gone, leaving the second Test’s hero-in-the-making with R Ashwin and the tail – still 126 runs adrift.</p>
<p>Kohli, with a little help from Ashwin, managed to bring that deficit number down to 28. For, in between the two brackets of bizarre, it was business as usual at Centurion – where South Africa and India played yet another day to remember, yet another display of no-quarter cricket to cherish. When the day ended, abruptly, South Africa had edged ahead by the slightest of margins, with the hosts leading by 118 runs with eight wickets remaining; with AB de Villiers in form, on 50 and still at the crease. But let’s not get ahead of the narrative just yet.</p>
<p>Minutes before Pandya had departed, Kohli had added 15 runs to his overnight score of 85 and brought up his 21<sup>st</sup> Test century. This knock was also his 11<sup>th</sup> hundred outside of India, but few of the other 10 were as disciplined, or as defiant. On a pitch where none of the South Africans breached the three-figure mark, Kohli ended up making one and a half centuries. For a large part of the second half of his longest innings on these shores, he had the astute Ashwin for company. The off-spinner scored 38 invaluable runs, a good portion of those struck in one over where he took on the toughest bowler on this pitch, Rabada, and cracked three glorious fours.</p>
<p>Ashwin eventually fell to the second new ball and Kohli, perhaps tired of shepherding the tail, followed him soon after when he holed out at long on. The Indian captain had focussed for six hours and change, spread over two days, and had amassed 153 runs. Now, it was finally over. </p>
<p>Even before South Africa began their second innings, their score was 28 for no loss. The wickets column rolled over twice in the space of three Jasprit Bumrah overs. He trapped Aiden Markram, scorer of 94 runs in the first innings, LBW with his second ball for 1. And then he trapped Hashim Amla too, scorer of 82 runs in the first innings, LBW for 1. With the scorecard in shambles, 3 for two, in walked de Villiers, the batsman of the tour so far. Bumrah, a slingy Yorker specialist in the limited overs, greeted him with an impeccable ball in the blockhole, under the shadow of the batsman's middle stump. Had any other South African been at the crease, he would’ve been dismissed -- plumb in front or clean bowled. But because this was AB, he managed to get the slightest tickle of his bat on the ball, which obediently ran away past fine leg for four. De Villiers sighed, visibly draining out the pressure from his lungs, and not long after, draining out the pressure created by Bumrah’s spell.</p>
<p>AB was soon cutting Bumrah off his backfoot for boundaries through point and square leg and driving Ishant Sharma directly through his stilt-like legs for four more. When Mohammed Shami extracted tennis ball bounce from this dead pitch, de Villiers replied with a tennis-like smash through the covers, inching towards his fifty. Just after he got there, ballooning SA’s lead to 118 and fast approaching safety, Bumrah bowled de Villiers a snorter. The ball pitched outside his off stump, rose inconveniently and missed taking a nick of his bat by a nanometre. De Villiers sighed. And at the same time, one caricature of a cloud did.</p>
<p><em>Brief scores: Centurion, Day Three – South Africa 335 & 90 for two in 29 overs (AB de Villiers 50 not out, D Elgar 36 not out; J Bumrah 2/30) lead India 307 all out in 92.1 overs (V Kohli 153, M Vijay 46; M Morkel 4/60) by 118 runs.</em></p>
<p><strong>Also Read</strong><br /><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/cricket/unnatural-selection" target="_blank">Unnatural Selection</a><br /><strong><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/" target="_blank"><em>Open</em> in South Africa</a> for match reports</strong></p>
<img src="http://www.openthemagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/public%3A/AB%20de%20Villiers.jpg?itok=wSNaIYk_" /><div>BY: Aditya Iyer</div><div>Node Id: 23847</div>Mon, 15 Jan 2018 17:26:40 +0000vijayopen23847 at http://www.openthemagazine.comKohli's Statement of Intenthttp://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/kohlis-statement-of-intent
<p>Captain Virat Kohli has a pet word. ‘Intent’. He uses it in press conferences, interviews and television shows. And he uses it much like his predecessor, MS Dhoni, used the word ‘process’ -- employed mainly when pressed into a corner. Kohli’s ‘process’ is intent; and he was asked to elaborate what he meant by it during the captain’s presser a day before the Centurion Test.</p>
<p>“Intent doesn’t really mean that you have to go out there and start playing shots from ball one,” Kohli replied. “Intent is there in the leave. Intent is there in defending as well. Intent is about being vocal out there in calling. All those things count as intent… people can tell if you are playing with intent or not.“ He wasn’t done yet. “That’s how I look at things. It is understanding that you are in control of what you want to do. That’s how I break down intent.”</p>
<p>On Day Two of the Centurion Test, when India finally got to bat after bowling out South Africa for 335 in the first session of play, that word ‘intent’ manifested in different ways for different batsmen. It will be fair to say that opener KL Rahul, replacing Shikhar Dhawan at the top for this Test, showed little of it – softly prodding at a Morne Morkel ball for a return catch in the 10th over of India’s innings. He was the first of five Indian wickets to fall <span>on Sunday</span>.</p>
<p>It will also be fair to say that the man replacing Rahul in the middle, Cheteshwar Pujara, showed plenty of it. First ball, he flicked Morkel to mid-on and set off on a run that even the athletes in the team wouldn’t dare to. Now, Pujara is no athlete. And neither does he have an appetite for bold singles. Yet, here he was, putting on neon display his intent. But that word can only get you that far, 19 yards far or three yards short in Pujara’s case. He was run-out first ball, 28 for no loss became 28 for two and ‘#Intent’ momentarily trended on Twitter.</p>
<p>To save face, in came Kohli. It was the moment of the day and an apt one at that, for Kohli was about to show just how to put <em>his</em> word in use.</p>
<p>On a bouncy pitch where the other batsmen preferred to play/poke/probe from within the crease, Kohli got off the mark with a single that flagged off his cherished word. A big stride forward to the quickest of the South Africans on show, Kagiso Rabada, and he was off the mark. In the following over, when he faced the bounciest of the South Africans in Morne Morkel, he used his hands to steer him through covers for his first boundary, and then stayed back and crunched the ball past the bowler’s right foot for four more. Kohli’s batting crease, every square inch of it, was already in use.</p>
<p>Kohli, as Ishant Sharma said at the presser at the end of day’s play, “was batting on a different wicket to the others.” Not just because of how easily he was able to find the boundaries (almost at will) but also due to how measured his unbeaten innings of 85 – the largest contribution to India’s overnight tally of 183/5 – really was. When a bouncer threatened to take off his head, he either ducked or swayed with poise, and sometimes even rose to his toes and got on top of it, dead bat under his thick brows. Sometimes, he played and missed and sometimes he even fished for the fifth stump line, his Kryptonite. But most importantly, he survived and kept his score moving.</p>
<p>After Rabada was steered past gully for four more by Kohli in the 13<sup>th</sup> over and again flicked for a boundary in the 17<sup>th</sup>, SA captain Faf du Plessis brought on his spinner, Keshav Maharaj. For three balls, Kohli lay in wait for the left-arm spinner to drift wide of his off stump. When he did, off the fourth ball, Kohli cut him powerfully past point to the fence. Soon after, when the players broke for tea, the team had added 52 runs since the two early wickets. Kohli had scored 39 of those runs. His batting partner, Murali Vijay, 13.</p>
<p>Post-tea, when Vijay tried to cut Maharaj quite like Kohli had pre-tea, but off a ball that was fuller in length, he was caught behind. Livid with self, Vijay dragged his leaden feet back to the pavilion. Even more livid than Vijay was Kohli, who punched his bat at the non-striker's end, and hissed a few choice words unfit for print under his helmet. In Kohli’s world, this too is a statement of intent. With another Sachinesque straight drive off Morkel he got into his 40s and then, with a controlled pull off the same bowler for a double, the captain brought up his first half century of this tour.</p>
<p>Kohli might’ve been determined to bat on at all costs, but his batting partners had read a different memo. Rohit Sharma, playing with the freedom that one can with a dagger hanging overhead, was set up by Rabada with a short ball. He was late on the pull but managed the collect 2 runs, a fifth of his total collection for the day. Next ball, Rabada bowled it full and straight and Rohit was trapped leg before. When South Africa’s debutant, the strong and fast Lungi Ngidi, attempted a similar one-two on Kohli the following over, the Indian captain too was struck on the pads. But before getting there, the ball had grazed the inside edge of Kohli’s bat and the batsman collected two runs for Ngidi’s effort.</p>
<p>In his 80s now and playing for stumps in the dregs of Day Two, Kohli had one final task of seeing off a Vernon Philander over. Perhaps due to the dying light, he poked at a short ball which screamed past the first slip for a boundary. There was no intent in these runs. It was his only unintentional moment all day.</p>
<p><em>Brief scores: Centurion Test, Day Two – India 185 for five in 61 overs (V Kohli 85 not out, M Vijay 46; L Ngidi 1/26, K Rabada 1/33) versus South Africa 335 all out in 113.5 overs (A Markram 94, H Amla 82, F du Plessis 63; R Ashwin 4/113, I Sharma 3/46)</em> </p>
<p><strong>Also Read</strong><br /><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/cricket/unnatural-selection" target="_blank">Unnatural Selection</a><br /><strong><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/" target="_blank"><em>Open</em> in South Africa</a> for match reports</strong></p>
<img src="http://www.openthemagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/public%3A/Virat%20Kohli.jpg?itok=Rpp5d8zp" /><div>BY: Aditya Iyer</div><div>Node Id: 23846</div>Sun, 14 Jan 2018 17:49:05 +0000vijayopen23846 at http://www.openthemagazine.comIndia’s Labour Dayhttp://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/india-s-labour-day
<p>From the River End of SuperSport Park, Mohammed Shami ran in to bowl to Hashim Amla. This was the 47<sup>th</sup> over of the first day’s play in Centurion – i.e. more than half the overs had been completed -- and only one man had so far been dismissed. Dean Elgar, South Africa’s out-of-form opener. Shami bowled the ball, the final one of this over, outside Amla’s off-stump, back-of-a-length and with a hint of reverse swing. Amla, not accounting for the late movement, played down the wrong line and inside edged the ball on to his back pad; a nick that could’ve well clattered on to the stumps. Immediately, the spectators packing the stands oohed. Not due to Amla’s rare shot. No. They were oohing the events unfolding 22 yards away from Amla.</p>
<p>At the end of his follow-through, Shami was doubled over in pain. First, he held his knees and sat on his haunches and then he massaged his neck. Finally, grabbing his forehead with both his palms (the official reason given at the end of the day was ‘headache’), Shami rose to his feet and did what the South African batsmen had seldom done for the first 80 overs of the day – make the slow, dazed walk back to the pavilion. It was a moment that perfectly summed up India’s health for a good chunk of the first day of the second Test; plenty of half chances that never turned full, plenty of being reduced to their knees and of course, plenty of headaches.</p>
<p>Amla was then on 21. When on 30, he nicked Ishant Sharma down the leg side and was put down by a diving Parthiv Patel. As Parthiv covered his face in his cap, Ishant sat down mid-pitch in disbelief -- the two new faces in this Indian side (in for Bhuvneshwar Kumar and wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha, respectively) cut sorry figures, just like the nine men around them. This, one realised at this point and on this pancake of a pitch, was going to be a long day of labour for the Indians. And it was, until the 81<sup>st</sup> over of the day, where South Africa found themselves at 246 for the loss of just three wickets, with two-well set batsmen, Amla batting on 82 and captain Faf du Plessis on 12, at the crease and a short while away from the drawing of stumps. Here, just as long, solemn shadows fell across the ground, the Indians, rather magically, found reasons to cheer.</p>
<p>It began with the run-out of Amla. Playing with soft hands, like he had all day long, Amla placed a Hardik Pandya ball by the vacant short-leg region and set off on what should’ve been his 83<sup>rd</sup> run <span>on Saturday</span>. But Pandya, galloping along the length of the pitch after his follow-through, collected the ball and in one swift motion turned around and flattened the stumps at the non-striker’s end. Amla, not the quickest between the wicket, was short by a whole yard. He was gone and two balls later, in R Ashwin’s new over, so was the new batsman, Quinton de Kock.</p>
<p>First ball of his innings, de Kock lazily poked at an Ashwin floater without his feet and a sharp catch at slips by Virat Kohli saw him dismissed for a golden duck. In walked Vernon Philander. And out walked Vernon Philander. Ball watching, he set off for a needless run even as du Plessis stuck his hand out at the other end and Pandya had affected his second run-out in the space of seconds. Just like that, the South African dressing room had lost a whole lot more than just three wickets for five runs in the space of 14 balls; they had also crucially lost their momentum, a motion that had threatened to potentially raise over 450 runs by the end of the second day.</p>
<p>As 246/3 became 269/6 by the time stumps were finally drawn, Aiden Markram, South Africa’s top-scorer with 94, had recalibrated that figure to 350. “That’ll be our first target for <span>tomorrow</span>, 350. Anything above that will be good,” Markram, more hopeful than assured, said at the presser. This was Test cricket at its best – just as the dominant team nodded off, lulled by their own success, the weary opposition struck back. The bowler who made most of those inroads was Ashwin.</p>
<p>Bowling almost non-stop on a Day One pitch in South Africa, lest we forget, Ashwin toiled for his end-of-day collection of three wickets – de Kock and the openers, Markram and Dean Elgar. At the press conference that followed, he looked a content man. “Today morning when we came to the ground, it looked like a wicket that was really flat and had to have a spinner in the game. Personally, I was very happy that the grass was taken off as it brought me into contention,” he said. “That’s the way it goes, right? I have seen a lot of cricket matches where people who haven’t been in contention to play the match come in and get those wickets. So, this was one of those days.”</p>
<p>According to the script, Ashwin, who later said, "I would like to think I have kept us in the game", wasn’t supposed to be the hero of the day. One of the four pacers – Shami, Ishant, Jasprit Bumrah and Pandya -- was. But Shami was the first to lose his lines and lengths on a flat pitch, in just the fourth over of the morning. He bowled one short and wide to Markram, who cut him past point for his first boundary. When Shami adjusted that length to full and straight next ball, he was whipped through midwicket for four more.</p>
<p>Markram went after Bumrah in the 21<sup>st</sup> over, punishing the pacer for his varying lengths with two consecutive fours. In the 25<sup>th</sup>, he repeated the back-to-back fours act against Pandya, to get to his 50. But just as he was looking set for his third Test hundred, he played a nothing shot on a nothing pitch against Ashwin, and was caught behind, six short of a three-figure mark. His success and fall, then, resembled South Africa’s day in a nutshell. Inspired for the most part; insipid just as it began to matter.</p>
<p><em>Brief scores: Centurion Day 1 – South Africa 269 for six in 90 overs (A Markram 94, H Amla 82; R Ashwin 3/80, I Sharma 1/32) versus India.</em></p>
<p><strong>Also Read</strong><br /><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/cricket/unnatural-selection" target="_blank">Unnatural Selection</a><br /><strong><a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/" target="_blank"><em>Open</em> in South Africa</a> for match reports</strong></p>
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<img src="http://www.openthemagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/public%3A/MohammedShami.jpg?itok=CY41tGhG" /><div>BY: Aditya Iyer</div><div>Node Id: 23845</div>Sat, 13 Jan 2018 18:00:24 +0000vijayopen23845 at http://www.openthemagazine.comCape Downhttp://www.openthemagazine.com/article/open-in-south-africa/cape-down
<p>To begin the 22<sup>nd</sup> over of India’s chase, Vernon Philander bowled the ball full and a shade outside Virat Kohli’s off stump, which the batsman punched to the cover fielder. Instantly, a section of the crowd on the grass embankment of Newlands broke into a chant of the Indian captain’s name, ‘Kohli Kohli’ replacing ‘Ole Ole’ in the famous football tune. With the sun beating down on Cape Town after a despicable day of rain and winds that ensured that no cricket was played on Day Three, the half-naked spectators sprawled besides portable beer coolers on Day Four were in a chirpy mood.</p>
<p>Above the embankment and on the old-school blackboard (marked with rows and columns), the score read ‘India: Runs: 71, Wickets: 3’. In other words (and numbers), India were 137 runs away from a historic win – only their third in 27 years in South Africa, only their first in Cape Town. To achieve this, India had 7 wickets in hand. More significantly, they had Kohli. At this point, the 22<sup>nd</sup> over, the captain was well placed and sure footed on 28 runs.</p>
<p>Philander bowled the second ball of the over well outside Kohli’s off stump – at least a stump further away than his opening delivery. Kohli dead batted the ball limp. It was fetched by the South African wicketkeeper, Quinton de Kock. For his third delivery, Philander bowled the ball even further outside Kohli’s off – a fifth stump line, if you may. To this, the batsman didn’t even bother with a response, letting the ball safely pass to the ‘keeper.</p>
<p>Kohli, of course, was aware of Big Vern’s strategy: each ball moving a little further away was only going to result in the bowler trying to bring one ball back in. When Philander did, off the very next ball, Kohli even seemed ready for it -- bat handle pressed into his body, face of the bat closing to tuck it away square. Yet, once the ball rose off the pitch, jagging back in, Kohli’s bat disagreed with his mind and missed the ball, leather eventually crashing into his front pad moments before the umpire raised his index finger. Kohli understood the significance of this moment and decided to waste a review. “We knew he was stone-dead,” Philander would later say in the press conference. And stone-dead he was, just like India’s chances of winning this Test were as he slowly walked off the field.</p>
<p>Off the 18 wickets that fell on Day Four (yes, 18), Kohli’s had the greatest impact on the result of the game. A moment before he was dismissed, India’s chances hovered around the 50 per cent mark. And about 90 minutes before that, as the players took lunch, India had recovered miraculously enough during the first session for them – and almost everyone spread around the circumference of Newlands -- to genuinely believe that the odds were heavily stacked in their dressing room to win this Test; belief and odds that were forged by the collective performance of India’s fast bowlers. </p>
<p>And what a performance it was. When the wet covers were lifted early on Monday morning, a once dry and flat pitch had turned spicy due to all the under-cover sweating. Resuming their second innings, eight South African batsmen were rapidly dismissed in a shade over 21 overs. This collapse – from 65 for two to 130 all out in under a session – was effected primarily by Mohammed Shami, who in turn was assisted brilliantly by the debutant, Jasprit Bumrah. Shami, finally finding his length (today, it was around good length, from where the ball often took off), got rid of the overnight batsmen, Hashim Amla and nightwatchman Kagiso Rabada, while Bumrah shook off the dangerous combination of SA captain Faf du Plessis and de Kock, all of them latched in the net between ‘keeper and gully.</p>
<p>When Bumrah finally dismissed AB de Villiers, holing out to a T20 field for 35 (top-scorer for South Africa, just like he was in the first innings), India needed 208 runs to complete the turnaround. All that lay between them and victory were South Africa’s fast bowlers – a moat filled with three crocodiles. This moat should’ve consisted of a fourth crocodile, Dale Steyn, but he had limped out during the first innings. Still, Philander, Rabada and to a certain extent, Morne Morkel, were more than enough for the Indians, extracting every last drop of juice from a fast flattening wicket. India’s openers, Murali Vijay and the shaky Shikhar Dhawan, put on 30 streaky runs for the first wicket and once both were dismissed in the space of six balls (with India still on 30), in walked Kohli. And in ran Philander, long and hard until he was convinced it was time for his sleight of hand – three away going deliveries followed by one that cut in.</p>
<p>“It was more like two and a half overs of away going deliveries followed by one that cut in,” Philander said later, giving the journalists in the room both a reason to laugh and an insight into his patience. Now, with Kohli gone and India still 137 runs away, it was down to Hardik Pandya, the man who had made possible the turnaround of his team’s fortunes from a similarly impossible situation. Rabada nicked him off for 1, a scoreline that India soon found themselves trailing by in this series.</p>
<p><em>Brief scores: Cape Town Test -- India 209 & 135 all out (R Ashwin 37, V Kohli 28; V Philander 5/53) lost to South Africa 286 & 130 all out (AB de Villiers 35, A Markram 34; M Shami 3/28, J Bumrah 3/29) lost by 72 runs.</em></p>
<img src="http://www.openthemagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/public%3A/South%20Africa.jpg?itok=hO2E7Eca" /><div>BY: Aditya Iyer</div><div>Node Id: 23818</div>Fri, 05 Jan 2018 07:30:22 +0000vijayopen23818 at http://www.openthemagazine.com